Pocket full of Posies...and Money!!

It's the weekend!!  Yeah :) I wanted to give you a heads up...I have a fun project posted over on the IMAGINE Crafts Blog today - my gift card holder that I dubbed Pocket full of Posies...and Money!   

It's a bit unconventional because I used BLACK cardstock for some of the flowers! The paper was covered with Irridescent Pink Creative Medium then stamped with Memento Luxe inks, the combination on the black paper really makes the flowers pop!

If you would like you can check out the full details here - Pocket Full of Posies...And Money!   It includes step by step instructions, a full supply list and a template for the flower pot.  Below is a photo of the flower/gift card.

Have a wonderfully inky weekend friends!

Gesso Stained Glass Technique

O.k...it's Friday and well, I was playing along really getting into this technique and what do you suppose happened?  I finished putting my stuff away and realized I forgot to take pics!!! OMG - what is wrong with me - LOL!!  I just started playing and I guess really got into it because I never even gave it a though.

Oh well - it's pretty easy and the original technique can be found here...  Neon Fire & Ice.   It's another gesso related technique for the Club Scrap May Technique Challenge - MM with a focus on gesso.  Those directions use neon inkers, I used a variety of blue Memento Luxe Inkers but you can use whatever inkers you want.  I also used book binding glue because it was sitting on my desk but other than that I did most everything the same (shocker I know!).  I did add some chunky glitter to one of the pieces while it was still wet.

I was able to pull 6 prints from one application of glue, gesso and inkers.  I thought that was pretty good.  Here are my resulting panels - 

These two are mirror images of each other - the one on the left was the first panel I dipped into the mix - it was a pretty heavy coating so I pulled a print off of it.

These were made on the lovely shimmery grey cardstock from The Blues kit.  I like that some of the grey still shows through.

And these two are the final prints.  The one on the dark blue cardstock was the last monoprint I pulled, the white panel was made by dabbing up the remaining glue/ink/gesso mix.  Hate to waste any you know.

And here are a few cards I made using these prints!

On the lovely grey shimmer paper.

This is my chunky glitter print.

and I made another card from this grey shimmer print too.  

Can you tell I love that paper?

So there you go...another fun mix-y, messy technique for you to try!  

Supplies:

ClubScrap.com - Papers, Stamps, Book Binding Glue

IMAGINE Crafts featuring Tsukineko - Memento Luxe Inkers, StazOn Midis

Deco Art - Gesso

Martha Stewart - Chunky Glitter

Ink Stained Gesso

Well, it's Thursday...no the beginning of the week but definitely not the weekend yet either.  Took my MIL to the eye dr today so I had some time to think about what I wanted to share with you today.  May's Technique Challenge over on the Club Scrap Blog is Mixed Media with the focus on gesso.

One of the shared techniques was to use stencils, gesso and either ink or Gelatos - well, that wasn't a good name so I decided that if you use inks it should be called Ink Stained Gesso ;)

So here goes....

1. Position a stencil over your cardstock panel; tape the edges down to hold it all in place, use a trowel and spread the gesso over the stencil.  Remove the stencil and let it dry.

2. Once the gesso has dried, re position the stencil over the gesso.  Now take it from me, if your stencil is like mine you might want to place a couple pencil marks to show you the area you used.  My stencil had 4 corners and they were all different...flip the stencil over and you've got 4 more variations!   Needless to say it took me a while to figure out just how I had it when I was spreading the gesso out.

Decide what colors you'd like to stain your gesso.  I went with a quartet of Memento blues - Summer Sky, Bahama Blue, Danube Blue and Paris Dusk.

3. Use a sponge dauber to ink up the gesso.  I started at the bottom of the stenciled area and worked from dark and used lighter inks as I went up the design.

Here it is after it was all inked up!  Love that look.

And here's what I did with it!  

Fun fun fun!

Supplies:

ClubScrap.com - Paper, Stamps, Stencil

Deco Art - Gesso

IMAGINE Crafts featuring Tsukineko - Memento Ink - Summer Sky, Bahama Blue, Danube Blue and Paris Dusk; Trowel; Delicata Silver Shimmer; Sponge Daubers

The Blues - Club Scrap Blog Hop & Give-Away!

I've got The Blues today...because that's the awesome theme of this month's Club Scrap kit!!  I can't tell you how thrilled I was when I saw this month's kit....  Beautiful shades of BLUE!!!

Welcome to May's Club Scrap Blog Hop - The Blues.

Since blue is my absolute favorite color I decided that I wanted to make something for my craft room.  As luck would have it a couple months ago I ordered the Magnetic Messenger project so I decided to swap out the papers the project came with and use this kit instead!

Now as many of you know I'm not really a "by the book" kind of gal so I "sort of" followed the directions but not exactly.  Instructions are just suggestions right?  ;)  Anyway, it was lots of fun to make and it came together nicely.  It's approx. 14x14" finished without the ribbon.

Everything is from The Blues kit paper wise.  The bottle caps and round wood magnets were included in the Magnetic Messenger kit - I just added the papers.  The cloths pin magnets are something I made from stuff in my stash  (the pin & magnets) but the paper and guitars came from this kit as well.

The sentiment was from the embellishment pack as was the hanging ribbon.
Below is a closer look at the magnets....

The cloths pins make super magnets because you can hold several pieces of paper together or hang up a note pad or a piece of art.  Lots of fun and really easy to make.

I still need to fill the bottle caps but I wanted some blue glitter and beads which I didn't have at the time.  Once I get them I'm going to fill it with Crystal Lacquer and the beads.  

GIVE-AWAY ALERT!!!

Now I can't part with my "Blues" messenger board BUT I did happen to order an extra 8x8" Magnetic Messenger project (complete with papers, metal sheet board and magnet pieces) to give away!!

All you need to do to be entered is leave a comment or send me an e-mail.  You have until 6-17 to enter for your chance to win!

Your next stop on the hop is - 

Lisa - Rockin' Paper Scissors and Glue

Remember if you get lost along the way you can find the complete list here - 

May Club Scrap Blog Hop 

Thanks for Stopin' By!

Blues Preview...

Happy Tuesday Everyone!  I hope you all had a lovely weekend celebrating Memorial Day.  

Can you believe that it's the end of May already??? Well it is and that means that tomorrow is the Club Scrap Blog Hop ~ YEAH!!!  Today I wanted to share a preview of fun stuff I'm going to be sharing with you tomorrow.  Well, it's also a hint as well.  The project I've created this month has something in common with all of the cards I'm sharing today - yes, they all were made using the same papers but it's the way the papers are being used that's the clue....  If you're really sharp and scour the Club Scrap store you might just figure it out ;)  But that's all I'm sayin' for now.   You'll want to be sure and stop back in and check it out though...you will have a chance to win something for yourself!

On to the cards I've made...    This month's kit theme was "The Blues"  and you all know how much I love blue!!!  I was thrilled when I got to playing with it cause it's just beautiful.  

and my favorite....

Darling isn't he?? 

Gotta love that little Gnome!

Well, you've got your clue to my project tomorrow but I bet you can't guess what it will be....you'll just have to wait and see!

Memorial Day Thank You to our Service Men and Women...

My Memorial Day card is featured on the IMAGINE Crafts blog today!  You can see how I incorporated one of my favorite IMAGINE Crafts products - Antique Creative Medium to create this card - A Thank You to Our Service Members

Stamps: Deep Red Stamps - Sentiment & Soldiers; Old Glory - Unity

Have a safe and fun weekend to all!

Club Scrap Design Team Challenge - Idea Deck

Happy Day Friends!  

Today I want to share the cards I created using the Jack of Hearts from Club Scraps Idea Deck - Volume #5 ...

If you're not familiar with the Idea Deck, it's a set of playing cards filled with 26 scrapbook and 26 card making formulas to with a supply list, cutting and assembly instructions to aid in quick, efficient and beautiful projects.   

The Jack of Hearts makes 3 lovely cards using just three sheets of cardstock with very minimal waste...which really isn't waste at all because they can be saved to be used on other cards! You can follow each design as closely as you like and add whatever extras you would like. I chose to stick to the design pretty close and embellish the cards with a combination of stamping, stenciling and pen work.

Here all three are together... Don't you just love the colors in this month's kit - The Blues?

The first two cards are the same except you flip-flop the papers.  I LOVE the grey cardstock this month - it's got such a lovely shimmer to it!  I bought a new set of pens this week and wanted to play with them so I used them as one of my main embellishments for this set of cards.  On the card above I outlined the flags and sentiment then added the squiggly lines to both.  The sentiment is from the Botanicals Kit.

For the card below I again added a bit of pen work but I did a bit of basic stenciling on the grey panel using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and the piano key board from the Blue kit.  The sentiment is from London Calling kit.

The last card has a different design which lends it's self well to alterations.  I used the quad collage image from the Blue Kit stamped with Danube Blue Memento Ink over the shimmery grey cardstock.  The sentiment from London Calling was stamped on the small panel using Tuxedo Black and again I added a bit of pen work to outline both the sentiment and grey panel.

Since the designs are so well laid out and the cutting directions are so easy to follow it only took about half an hour to whip these puppies out.  Of course all the pen work took a bit more time but that was totally my choice...do you know how hard it is NOT to play with new goodies?  LOL...  

Supplies:

Club Scrap - Cardstock - The Blues Collection, Sentiments - Botanicals & London Calling; stencil -  The Blues Piano Keyboard

IMAGINE Crafts/Tsukineko - Memento Tuxedo Black, Danube Blue, Nautical Blue; Sponge Daubers

Foray Style Mark Pens

Brusho Colour Crystals & Kraft Cardstock!

Today I wanted to share an experiment I tried with Brusho Colour Crystals...  Previously I tried using the white Brusho Colour Crystals on black cardstock - well while moving around some stuff on my desk I found a pile of kraft paper cardstock panels that I had left over for making a set of cards for someone.  I thought it would be fun to see what the Brusho crystals looked like on this and I was thrilled with the results...

The first example is a combination of White and Rose Red.  The colors in person are so much more vivid...surprisingly so on the kraft cardstock.  I thought it might dull the colors but it didn't one bit!  The Rose Red is one of my favorite colors.

I absolutely LOVE this example - It was made using White, Lime Green and Ultramarine Blue.  Simply stunning - the green is amazing and mixed with the blue & white...beautiful!  

I am going to create a couple of cards with these panels as soon as I have a bit more time but I just couldn't wait to share how pretty they look on the kraft cardstock.  I highly suggest you give em a try if you can.  The lovely results will surprise you.

  

Stamped Sunflower Watercolor Card

Just having some fun with watercolor painting a stamped image today...  

This is a stamp set by Chapel Road Art Stamps - Large Sunflower.  I thought this image would be perfect to stamp then watercolor and I love how it turned out. 

 I started off by stamping the image with Memento London Fog (grey) ink onto watercolor paper. (Note - you could use cold or hot press paper but I prefer the texture of cold press paper to the smoother finish of hot press.) By using grey you get enough detail to follow but once you add a few layers of watercolor paint the stamping recedes allowing the watercolor to shine.  

I started off by painting the background with layers of blue - getting darker near the edges.  Next I painted the yellow, orange and browns of the flower head... I let most of the upper layers of color dry completely before adding the next so I worked on the leaves between dry times for the flower head.  As I was working back and forth they both were finished about the same time.

I don't know why but I find watercolor painting very relaxing - building the layers of color and swishing around the water...  I love it.

Supplies:

Watercolor Image: 

140 lb Cold Press Watercolor Paper

Koi Watercolors

Memento London Fog Ink

Chapel Road ArtStamps - Sunflower

Finished Card:

White & Colored Cardstock - Club Scrap

Memento Ink Dual Tip Markers (for the small sunflower border)

Gold Thread

Club Scrap Purse Card Holder Winners!

I'm a bit behind with being sick and all but I finally had a chance to determine the winners of the Club Scrap Purse Card Holders 

using Random.org's random number generator.

The winners are.....

....

BeckyApril 29, 2015 at 10:28 AM

Wow! These are just gorgeous card holders. What a great gift idea. You inspire me, Roni!
Becky

and...

LauraApril 29, 2015 at 9:47 PM

Roni, what a cool purse style container for your beautiful cards! I can't wait to see your tutorial on how you made these!!! Love the gorgeous pastel colors too! Thanks so much for sharing!

....

Congratulations!!

Please send me your snail mail addies so I can get your Card Holder Purses in the mail to you!

Art Product ? For You - Love Your Opinion!

Hi Friends!  Happy Monday :)  I hope you all had a great weekend.  I am happy to report I am feeling better!  The ear meds started to work but I did end up with a ruptured ear drum in my R ear so I won't be hearing anything with that puppy for a good while - YUCK!  But I'm mostly over this darn virus everyone has had around here and at least my ears don't hurt anymore.

Today I have a question for you about your perspective on products and knowledge about those products.  I have a couple situations that have me in a bit of a quandary.  I know what my thoughts are but I want to see if I'm way off base or if my thinking is correct.

O.k....I don't have a particular product in mind, (well I do but we're not going to use that for the example) but just think about any new (to you) craft product out on the market.  Now, with this product in mind I have some questions for you...

**Would you like to see as many projects made using this product as possible - before and after you buy it?

**Thinking about these projects would you like to see mainly simple projects incorporating said product or an array of projects from the simple most basic approach to more involved on into advanced techniques?  

**Would you like to see the chosen product used in many easy techniques vs. an array of techniques (no matter the level)?

**If you saw a project that was more time consuming that say a CAS card would it turn you off on a particular project (or product) even if this project was laid out in very easy to follow step by step instructions?

I know these questions may sound silly but it's driving me crazy.  IMO (for what it's worth - and apparently that's not much) I would prefer to see lots of examples of the product in use, used in a vast array of projects, in a wide range of styles and difficulty levels.  Even if these projects take more than 15-20 minutes to make. 

Again, in my opinion I like to purchase products that I know I WILL use for more than one technique or style and can be used over and over to achieve a variety of looks.  Not something that I am going to use once and let it get shoved in the back of a drawer somewhere.  

Maybe I'm just crazy but I'd really love to hear what you think about these questions...if you'd rather not post here please feel free to e-mail me.

Brushed Rose & Sale Alert!!

Happy Day Friends!  I hope you're all having a wonderful week so far...  Today I wanted to share some fun rose cards I made using one of the newest releases from Just For Fun Rubber Stamps - the Brushed Rose.   This is a fun rose that can be used as a single image (as shown in the 1st & 3rd cards) or in pieces as I did for the card in the center.

This card was stamped on a fun background that was made by adding ink over gesso on a piece of cardstock.  Love the watercolor look of the Memento Luxe Ink over the gessoed background and I wish you could feel the texture of it.

I stamped these roses and leaves using a variety of Memento inks, the background paper is Club Scrap.

Another card stamped with Memento Ink.

And now for the big Sale Alert....

Starting this Saturday, May 16th....

Special Spring Offer

at Just For Fun Rubber Stamps

As a celebration of springs arrival we are kicking off our Spring Fling Special offer of 30% OFF all online retail orders.

The special will run from Saturday May 16 thru Memorial Day Monday May 25.

No coupon or discount codes necessary...the discount will be taken automatically at checkout.

.

Quick & Easy Envelopes!

Today I wanted to share with you another popular post  - Quick & Easy Envelopes!  I originally posted these two envelopes back in 2009 and are still being viewed quite frequently today.  These little gems don't take any special tools, tricks or techniques.  They are basic and easy folds allowing you to create two different styles that will fit all cards you might make.  Hope you enjoy taking another look at Quick & Easy Envelopes!

Small-Medium Sized Card

I usually start out with an 8 1/2" x 11 or 12" sheet of cardstock for small - medium sized cards.

1. Center the card on your piece of cardstock and draw lines on each side of the card adding about 1/8" - 1/4" on each side. This extra space makes for easy insertion ~ o.k. no better way to put that.

2. Use the bone folder and crease lines where you placed your marks. You can see in this photo I placed an "X" on the outside corners where the lines criss-crossed.

3. Cut off the 4 corners where "X" marks the spot!

4. Fold both of the outside smaller flaps towards the center.

5. Fold the bottom flap up towards the center. Apply a small bit of adhesive to adhere this flap to the 2 side flaps.

6. Miter the top edges of the small flaps as shown...

7. Fold the flap over and it's ready to use!

8. (Optional) If desired you can spiff it up a bit and use an edge punch or deco scissors to pretty up the flap!

Large Card Envelope Directions:

I use 12x12 sheets of cardstock for these envelopes.  You can make envelopes for some VERY large cards using this technique.

1. Center your card on the cardstock which has been turned so one corner is pointing towards you as shown...

2. Fold the bottom corner up towards the center.

3. Turn the card/cardstock and fold the next corner towards the center.

4. Fold the last side towards the center as shown...

5. Open all 3 sides up...

6. Re-fold both of the side panels in towards the center.

7. Fold the bottom flap towards the center and secure with a dab of adhesive.

8. Fold the top flap down and you're good to go!

And there you go...

still as easy as they were when I originally posted it back in 2009!

P.S....I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for the well wishes here, on FB and in e-mail.  I am taking my meds as directed and my eyes are much better.  My ears don't hurt as much but are still stuffed so I'm still a bit off ;)  LOL!!  (no comments from the Peanut Gallery now).  Hopefully the meds will kick in and I'll be back to normal (whatever that may be) soon!